Mud Fur and Rose Petals
by Alice-Thyme
Summary: Heero gives Duo a very special gift.


Genre: Romance, Humor

Pairing:Heero/Duo

Warning: Yaoi Fluffness

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters from Gundam , I just play with them

Summary: Cuteness with rain and lots of mud

Muddy Footprints

The storm outside Duo's apartment lit up the sky in flashes of lightning, followed by thunder that shook the floor. The large window in Duo's bedroom blew open at the wind's onslaught. Letting in a torrent of rain and chilling wind. Duo, awoken by the sudden storm in his room, scrambled to get of his bed and shut the window, only to become tangled in his bedding.

He grumbled and disentangled himself from the bedding, before shuffling over to the window. He leaned out the window of the first story apartment, to grab hold of the shutters that clung to the sides of the building. He wrenched the shutters closed, latching them firmly, before closing his window.

The sound of breaking glass came from the kitchen down the hall. Duo rolled his eyes heaven ward and beseeched the ceiling. This was not turning out to be his night. He groaned and tramped out into the hallway that lead to the rest of the apartment. His bare feet met something wet and squishy on his way there. The guest bedroom's door was wide open, and muddy footprints lead from its' window, into the hall and into the dark.

"Ruin my carpet will they!" he muttered under his breath, "Damn inconsiderate burglars, couldn't they have taken off their shoes at least?"

He grabbed a towel from the bathroom, wiping the mud off his feet, before sneaking down the hallway, his steps muffled by the thick lilac rug. The sound muffling carpet was one of his few splurges, he had bought it so he could sneak up on intruders, like he was now doing. The former thief had also designed the security system for this place, and the absence of alarms told him the power was out.

When he reached the end of the hall, he peaked around the corner cautiously. A dark form fumbled with some small, squirming thing near the kitchen table. Broken glass glittered around the table when the lightning lit the room. Duo crept around the glass to approach the figure from behind.

Whatever the intruder struggled with, managed to escape, shooting past Duo's feet and into the hall. The figure turned around, trying to see where the creature had gone, only to be confronted by Duo.

"What are you doing in _my_ apartment?" he asked calmly. The figure raised his hands, Duo, mistakenly believing he was under attack, pounced on the unfortunate intruder.

They wrestled with each other in the dark, knocking over a bookshelf and several more glasses in the process. The intruder eventually gained the upper hand, pinning Duo to the floor.

"Chill." came an all too familiar voice.

"Heero?" came Duo's questioning voice. The figure backed off.

"Well of course it is baka, who else would it be?" Heero asked irritably. Duo started to shrug, before realizing Heero could not see him shrug.

"You have a key, why didn't you come in the front door? Like a normal person would?" Duo baited. Heero said something under his breath. "What was that again?" Duo said.

"I said, my key snapped in the door. So I came in through the guest bedroom window, you never lock the damn thing." Heero replied. "Now, stay here, I'll go see if this is just a burnt circuit." Duo heard him move of to the hall, where the circuit box was hidden away in a closet.

While Heero tampered with the circuits, Duo moved to the livingroom, grabbing a throw to wrap around himself and settling down into his favorite chair. Cursing came at fairly regular intervals from the hall, Duo had nearly fallen asleep when something jumped onto his lap. Figuring it was whatever Heero had been fumbling with earlier he held out his hand. Which was greeted by a tiny wet nose and a squeaky mew. Duo felt for the kitten carefully, lifting it into his arms, where it immediately climbed up his t-shirt and onto his shirt, curling up on his shoulder and falling asleep, a rumbling purr issued from the tiny creature as Duo gently stroked its ears. He fell asleep listening to the little creature purr.

In the meantime, Heero gave up with the box and called the electric company, who promised the power would be up by morning. Heero grumbled a bit over the delay and went back into the kitchen, he swept up as much glass as he could find, disposing of it in the trash can before heading for the livingroom. Duo and the kitten Heero had brought were fast asleep in one of the chairs. He sat down on the couch and took off his shoes, realizing as he did so that he had probably tracked mud all over the apartment. He laid down on the couch, pulling a throw around himself and fell asleep as well, hoping that the power would indeed be on by morning.

Duo woke up to the smell of cooking food. His sensitive nose told him there was bacon and pancakes somewhere in the apartment. He stretched carefully, lifting the tiny kitten off it's perch and carrying it back to his bedroom. He set the tiny black kitten down on his bed, whereupon it curled on top of his pillow and went back to sleep. Duo smiled and went to his closet to pull out some fresh clothes. On one side of the walk-in closet were his clothes while Heero's were on the other. Duo pulled out a pair of comfortable jeans, the straight-leg, rather than taper, that rode on his hips. They were well worn, but Duo didn't really care, it was a Saturday, and he was going to be comfy. Next came a faded purple t-shirt, with some band emblazoned on the front, with their tour on the back. He pulled on a pair of flip-flops and wandered out into his bedroom and into the bathroom to get cleaned up a bit.

This of course involved brushing out his long hair and re-braiding it into its' customary style, brushing his teeth and washing his face. He turned to leave the bathroom, only to see the kitten staring at him curiously. He laughed at the tiny creature, who's head was cocked to one side, and tail curved into a question mark. He picked up the kitten and went off into the kitchen for breakfast.

Heero stood by the stove, flipping pancakes onto a plate as they were finished. He wore Duo's apron around himself, which read in very large print, "Kiss the cook or I won't feed you." It had been his gift to Duo last year at Christmas. He turned around as Duo entered, smiling slightly.

"Happy birthday Duo, do you like your kitten?" he said, gesturing at the little fur ball with the spatula. Duo nodded.

"I've decided to call her Helen." he said, rubbing the newly christened Helen's ears. Heero nodded. "She is adorable."

"I picked her out because she's just like you, very loud, very affectionate, and very annoying."

Heero said gruffly, "But I suppose she is _kinda_ cute." Duo smiled and hugged Heero around the shoulders, filching a pancake as he did so, and stuffing it into his mouth before Heero could take it back. "Supposed to wait for the others baka." He said slightly annoyed. Duo put on his best puppy dog look and held the kitten, who bore a similar expression, up to his cheek.

"But I'm hungry now Heero-chan." he said innocently. Heero threw up is hands in defeat and turned back to making breakfast. The bell rang a few minutes later, causing the tiny kitten to jump slightly, Duo calmed her down, and headed for the front door. The kitten abandoned him to explore the kitchen.

Duo opened the front door to let in his friends. Quatre came bearing a large box wrapped in shiny purple paper, he beamed at Duo and deposited it into the former thief's hands.

"Happy birthday Duo!" he chirped as he made his way into the apartment. Trowa came next, with a wave and a small box wrapped similarly to Quatre's.

"Happy birthday." he said quietly as he followed the bouncing blonde. Wufei came in last, stacking another purple present on top of the other two.

"Happy birthday Duo." he said in his usual reserved manner, before following the others. Duo struggled with the packages as he shut and bolted the door. Trying not to drop anything he made his way to the livingroom where everyone had gathered. He set down the gifts, and at Quatre's urging, unwrapped them as Heero brought in plates of steaming hot pancakes and bacon for everyone. The first box, from Quatre had new clothes in it, and from the looks of things, he had shopped at Hottopic. Trowa gave him a new baseball cap, seeing as his was rather torn up, and a shirt that read, 'Reality is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.' Duo grinned at him. Wufei's gift out to be a bonsai tree.

"You need balance." he said calmly, finishing his pancakes. Duo just smiled and dug into his own breakfast. From the kitchen came a loud crash, followed by a small black creature covered partially in flour, running into the livingroom and onto Duo's lap. Duo laughed and used his napkin to clean the flour off the unfortunate Helen.

"Meet Heero's birthday present to me, Helen." he announced, holding up the kitten. Everyone smiled and pet the kitten. Heero had disappeared into the kitchen.

"Duo, could you come in here?" came his voice from the door. Duo handed the kitten to Quatre and rushed into the kitchen. Flour was everywhere, and so were little paw prints. Duo attempted to keep a straight face, and failed miserably. He laughed for several minutes, holding his sides when they started to ache. Heero just watched, shaking his head. Once Duo had control of himself, Heero took out a large cardboard box. "This is everything you'll need for Helen." he said quietly. Duo opened the box, which contained; cat litter, a litter box, several toys, a scratch post, cat food, and little bowls for water and food. Duo looked up and smiled.

"Thanks a bunch Heero." he said, before hugging him tightly. "I am so glad to have you." Duo released Heero and stepped back to see his reaction. Heero smiled slightly, a smile that turned into a grin as he surveyed the kitchen.

"This is kinda funny." he said. Duo nodded, unsure of what to do next. Heero laughed for a moment, before leaning forward, grabbing hold of Duo and kissing him firmly on the lips. He drew back slightly to look at the now blushing Duo. "And I am glad to have _you_." he said matter-of-factly. He smiled at Duo and lead the startled young man back out to the party.

It was much later that night, and Duo was getting ready for bed, he pulled on the t-shirt from the night before, with a pair of lavender pajama bottoms, and walked back into the living room where the others still were, they had decided to spend the night. So Quatre was taking the guest bed, having won the coin toss, and the other two would sleep on the couches. Helen crouched near Wufei, whose hand dangled temptingly in front of her. Heero looked up as Duo entered the room, and immediately started to laugh, much to Duo, and the others, surprise. He gestured towards Duo's shirt with one hand, and stifled his laughter with the other.

A confused Duo looked down to see what was so funny. There, on the front of his shirt, up to his shoulder, were a set of tiny, mud paw prints. Duo grinned, he hadn't even noticed the tiny kitten's muddy state last night, and she must have cleaned up while he was sleeping.

"Oops." he said, laughing at himself. The others just shook their heads as Duo went back to his room to change. They stayed up fairly late that night, talking, but Heero slipped off early. When Duo was finally ready to go to bed he walked back to the hallway. Foot prints made of rose petals lead the way down the hall to his room, where Heero waited.

"Happy birthday Duo," he said from his place on the bed, Duo just smiled and closed the door behind him, following the foot prints to where the best gift of all lay in wait. The gift of Heero's love.


End file.
